


The Good Fight

by T Verano (t_verano)



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: 2013 TS Secret Santa Drabble Days prompt "Day of Reconciliation - Nelson Mandela", Discussion of racial discrimination, Gen, Mention of apartheid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2020-04-11 23:12:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19119643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_verano/pseuds/T%20Verano
Summary: Henri Brown and Brian Rafe talk about Rafe's homeland.





	The Good Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2013 TS Secret Santa Drabble Days prompt "Day of Reconciliation - Nelson Mandela"
> 
> This is a little gloomy in some ways - which absolutely isn't intended to criticize the holiday or its purpose of drawing the country together, but just to acknowledge the challenges inherent in starting to heal from something like apartheid, and how that healing could never be an easy process.
> 
>  
> 
> Note: This is my take on fanon for Rafe (since there's so little canon and apparently the actor grew up in South Africa :-))

Henri scratched the back of his neck. "How come it's not better known, then?"

Rafe shrugged, and Henri went on, "I mean, I know about the ANC and my man Mandela, but I never heard of the Day of Reconciliation. Ought to be a big deal."

"It is, I guess. Just… there, not anywhere else." Rafe looked as uncomfortable as he usually did when he talked about the country he'd grown up in, that he'd left as more or less an exile. "It's only been called the Day of Reconciliation for a couple of years; before that it was the Day of the Vow and commemorated a famous Afrikaner victory over the Zulu. It's still supposed to commemorate that, actually."

Henri narrowed his eyes. "That doesn't sound very conciliatory to me, bro."

Rafe shrugged again, looking more uncomfortable than ever. "Now it also officially celebrates the formation of the MK. I don't know if it makes sense, them combining the Day of the Vow with commemorating the birth of the military wing of the ANC, but they seem to be trying to make things better."

Henri sighed. He hadn't meant to bring his sometimes-moody partner down. "Takes a long time to heal something like apartheid," he said, clapping Rafe on the shoulder. "Least they're working at it now."

Rafe still looked bleak, and Henri shook his head. "Ain't on your shoulders, Bri. People do shitty things to each other for shitty reasons. Power can be a big motherfucker of a drug, lets people try to fool themselves that it's an us-or-them world, that we ain't all in this together."

That pulled a sigh out of Rafe, and a look Henri had no difficulty interpreting as guilt. Rafe didn't seem to have any middle ground whenever they talked about this shit; either he was hang-dog — feeling guilty by virtue of the color of his skin and of where he was born and grew up, as far as Henri could tell — or quietly, intensely pissed off at everything that was still fucked up in his former country.

Quietly, intensely pissed off, and doing what he could behind the scenes, from this far away, to fight the good fight. He was a good man, Brian Rafe.

The world needed more good men like him. Henri glanced around the bullpen; there were other good men here, too. Had been other good men of all persuasions, all backgrounds, fighting the fight since way before Henri'd been born or he wouldn't be here today, not in this job. Neither would Simon or Joel, or Jenae or Travis or… hell, at least a quarter of the detectives Henri knew.

It wasn't perfect. Probably wouldn't ever be perfect, not until politics and greed and religion and fear and just plain stupidity stopped being a part of human nature. But it was better than it used to be, and you had to move forward from where you were.

"Come on, Bri, let's go hit the break room. I feel a sudden urge for a Snickers bar and some coffee."

The light of battle appeared in Rafe's eyes, just like Henri was counting on. "Break room coffee? H, you're out of your mind. I'm not drinking that sewage. We've got fifteen minutes, we have time to run across the street to Java Joe's." 

"You're on," Henri said. "Hell, I'll even let you treat me, since it's turned out today's a day of celebration and all."

Rafe paused as he was shrugging on his fancy GQ coat and rolled his eyes at Henri. "Of all the police departments in this country, how did I end up here, with you as my partner?"

Henri grinned. "Just lucky, I guess." He grabbed his jacket and headed toward the door, and one of Joe's holiday candy-bar coffee specials. "I guess both of us are just lucky."

**Author's Note:**

> ANC: African National Congress - initially founded as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in 1912, with the aim of fighting for the rights of black South Africans; renamed the ANC in 1923.
> 
> MK: Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the military wing of the ANC that was formed Dec. 16, 1961 to fight against apartheid through sabotage and other forms of active resistance.


End file.
